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  AHYMSIN newsletter, Issue - August 2011  
 
   
 
   

Darshan

with Swami Veda

by Sharon Fruechte

Two weeks ago, on July 18, I was privileged to attend a talk by Swami Veda at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.  The experience was unlike any other in all the years I have traveled, near and far, to hear him, to sit in his presence.  I had been told he was not feeling well, but I was unprepared for how physically ill he appeared.  Any weakness, however, was limited only to the physical, for his presence and his message remained as strong as the first time I saw him over 30 years ago.

At that initial yoga lecture, I was a young wife and mother, not this grandmother who recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary.  What I recall most vividly about Swami Veda from the very first glimpse was his joy, shining from his eyes, beaming from his face, surrounding him.  I had, of course, seen and experienced happiness and joy, was blessed to be doing so daily in my own life, but THIS joy had a different feel and seemed to have a different source.  The timing was right, for in my small way and as duties allowed, I was continuing the searching I’d begun as a child for answers to questions I didn’t understand. 

Through the years to follow, I continued searching for answers to my questions and soon realized I frequently didn’t understand the presumed answers either.  And somewhere in those years, both the questions and answers gradually lost their sense of urgency.  I must confess that I am a simple soul, at best an average student, certainly neither a scholar nor a disciple, and that I have always enjoyed Swami Veda’s stories more than his “serious, in-depth” lectures.  And somehow I knew that was all right.  Frequently I would feel a need to be in Swami Veda’s presence and would go where he was.  As one year followed another, however, that need shifted and softened, and I knew that this, too, was all right.  Yet he remains in my heart and my practice, such as it is, and has helped me immeasurably to make sense of my life, to remember who I am.  My morning prayers begin with first rejoicing that this is the day the Lord has made and I will be glad in it, and secondly greeting/saluting Swami Veda and Swami Rama with a Namaste, with love and gratitude.    

Which brings me to the title of Swami Veda’s talk two weeks ago:  Finding Joy.  He entered my life with joy, and what could be more appropriate for what may be my last opportunity to be in his physical presence than the topic of finding joy.  In spite of his obvious effort to find enough breath to speak, his message was clear, and, yes, a joyful reminder to be done with fears, to let go of misguided attachments to the physical and misinterpretations of the true nature of time and space.  He softly urged us to open all our eyes, to really see and know reality, to celebrate both the micro and the macro, to remember who we are.  At least, that is what I heard, what I felt.  My apologies to those who heard something completely different.  My deepest apologies to Swami Veda for what I didn’t hear.

I will conclude my rambling with the wishes usually included in my Christmas card to Swamiji:  Peace and joy to you, dear Swamiji.  Namaste, with love and gratitude.


Editor’s note:

This was written 2nd August 2011.

   
       
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